Survivability enhancement is a well-known objective for armored vehicles or fixed or mobile armored structures in a combat or other high threat environment. If a high-energy projectile strikes a vehicle, the survivability of the occupants and the vehicle can be compromised by the release of spall, which is a spray of high velocity metallic or ceramic debris into the vehicle's interior. Vehicles, ships, aircraft, or structures in a high threat environment are therefore frequently equipped with a spall liner, which is designed to suppress the spall generated when a projectile penetrates the vehicle's interior.
Spall liners are typically comprised of a compressed panel. The compressed panel usually includes a plurality of layers of high modulus, high tensile strength fabric bonded together by a resinous adhesive. If a projectile penetrates the armor of a vehicle, the spall liner absorbs the force of the projectile, with each separate layer delaminating and absorbing some portion of the force of the projectile and thereby dissipating the energy of the projectile as it advances through the spall liner.
Although many different spall liners have been proposed, further enhancements in spall suppression are highly desirable for increasing survivability of armored vehicles and structures.